Issue
153 April 2003
Test-Driving
the Z8
GET
ONE
I
didn’t think I would enjoy working with the Z8 Encore!
development kit, because the old Z80 was a parts magnet
when it came to putting a useful Z80 system together.
In any case, the Z80 was an excellent microprocessor
in its day. If you do some wave riding on the Internet,
you’ll find that there are still some guys out there
riding Z80 surf boards.
I
found the new Z8F6403 capable and easy to work with.
During the research period for this article, I called
the Zilog folks to talk about this development kit and
found them to be extremely supportive and responsive
to my needs. Based on what I experienced on the phone,
I can say without a doubt that you won’t have any trouble
getting technical support from Zilog.
If
you’re remotely interested in the Z8 Encore! series,
get yourself one of these development kits while they’re
still $49. There’s no way you could build your own from
scratch at that price. The C compiler and IDE are worth
the price of the development kit without the hardware.
And, the abundance of example source code is priceless.
You
don’t have full schematics, because I just didn’t have
room to print them. The same goes for my source code
and Zilog’s. But fret not, because I’m going to leave
you with the last shot of my final efforts (see Photo
5).
|
(Click
here to enlarge)
|
Photo
5—As you can see, I still have a couple of special
headers to assemble. After I’m finished, I’ll be
able to plug the 10/100-Mbps ASIX Ethernet development
board into the Z8F6403 I/O subsystem and participate
on the Florida Room LAN. You will get the final
hookups and ported code in the download package. |
You
may download my Z86403 Ethernet code from the Circuit
Cellar ftp site. I’ll provide an ASIX development board
to those of you who want to put your newly acquired
Zilog wonder on a LAN or the ’Net and prove once again
that it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated
to be embedded.
